Degerby in Föglö 31.5. – 1.6.

On the leg from Sottunga to Degerby we sailed comfortably all the way. At first we had a downwind and sailed her a wing on wing for the first time.

On the leg from Sottunga to Degerby we sailed comfortably all the way. At first we had a downwind and sailed her a wing on wing for the first time. We sheeted the mainsail to the right and genoa to the left. Second half of the trip was already familiar close reach.

In Degerby we approached the guest harbour and started to ponder if there is enough depth for our yacht. Suwena’s draft is 1.9 meters. In the middle of summer when there are other yachts in the harbour the water depth can be guessed according to the size and type of other boats. This harbour had no signs of depth and somehow it looked too shallow. Now in the beginning of summer water was so clear that we could see the bottom and our doubts only increased. We know there would be enough water for us on the dock of the restaurant Seagram and we moored over there instead of guest harbour.

We were again so early in season that the guest harbour was not open yet. Restaurant Seagram guest harbour will open on 1st of June.

We were so interested in official marina that we walked over there to explore it more closely. Of course the only septic pump out station in Degerby was located there as well and Suwena was in time to use one soon. We made a joke on pump out dock that one of us could jump into water and test how much water comes above the head to evaluate if there is deep enough for Suwena. Well the water is still cold and we skipped the test. Instead we walked to nearby restaurant Mat & Cafe to ask about the piers. The answer was what we already were thinking about. The water is only 1.5 meters deep near the pump out station. It would have been much easier with some kind of markings on the docks.

The official Degerby guest harbour looked otherwise also little strange because the floating guest docks are just behind the pump out station. We also found very weird water post where a visiting yacht can use the water for 4 minutes at a time with one euro. This price is ridiculous! We were glad our 620 liter water tank was full. The water post was also on a pump out dock so Suwena was not in danger to be robbed by water tanking.

In both of the Åland’s archipelago harbours we did not see any other Finnish flagged boats. Sottunga had one yacht from UK and couple from Sweden, in Degerby on other hand was a crew from Swizerland on a Baltic Sea tour.

In Degerby the sun was shining for the first time this year so warmly that we decided also the get the first ice creams cones, ahh so delicious.

On Wednesday it was time to turn Suwena’s bow towards Ålands main island and Mariehamn’s West harbour.